John Joseph "Dasher" Troy (May 8, 1856 – March 30, 1938) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player from 1877 to 1888. He played five seasons of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, principally as a

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

, for the Detroit Wolverines (1881–82),

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National ...

(1882),

New York Gothams The New York Giants were a Major League Baseball team in the National League that began play in the season as the New York Gothams and became known as the Giants in . They continued as the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisc ...

(1883), and the

New York Metropolitans The Metropolitan Club (New York Metropolitans or the Mets) was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. (The ''New York Metropolitan Baseball Club'' was the name chosen in 1961 for the New York M ...

(1884-85). He appeared in 292 major league games, 257 of them as a second baseman, and compiled a .243

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with 42 doubles, 20

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, four

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 51

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

. After retiring from baseball, Troy operated the beer concession at the

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in the 1890s and later opened a café in his old home neighborhood at Tenth Avenue and 39th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Early years

Troy was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1856. He was raised in the Tenth Avenue Gashouse District on the Lower West Side of

Professional baseball career

Minor leagues

Troy began his professional baseball career in 1877 with the New York Alaskas team in the League Alliance. He also played for three different clubs in the Eastern Championship Association during the 1881 season.

Detroit and Providence

In August 1881, Troy made his major league debut with the Detroit Wolverines of the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

. He appeared in 11 games at second and third base for the 1881 Wolverines and compiled a .341

. Troy returned to the Wolverines at the start of the 1882 season and appeared in 42 games, mostly at shortstop and second base. His batting average dropped to .243 with the 1882 Wolverines. He finished the 1882 season playing in four games for the

of the National League.

New York

In 1883, Troy returned home to New York as a member of the newly formed

, later renamed the Giants. Troy appeared in 85 games for the 1883 Gothams, including 73 games at second base and 12 at shortstop. He compiled a .215 batting average with seven doubles, five triples and 20 RBIs with the Gothams. In 1884, Troy joined the

of the American Association. The 1884 Metropolitans compiled a 75–32 record and won the American Association pennant. Troy was the team's starting second baseman, appearing in 104 games at the position in 1884. During New York's first championship season, Troy posted a .264 average with 80 runs scored, 111 hits, 22 doubles, 10 triples, and two home runs. Troy concluded his major league career as a member of the 1885 Metropolitans. He appeared in 45 games that year, including 42 at second base. His batting average dipped to .220 with three doubles, three triples, two home runs and 12 RBIs. Troy's last major league game was on July 9, 1885.

Return to minors

Troy continued playing professional baseball in the minor leagues through the 1888 season, including stints with the Scranton Indians (39 games, 1886), Binghamton Crickets (36 games, 1886), New Haven Blues (55 games, 1887), Manchester Farmers (37 games, 1887), and Troy Trojans (62 games, 1888). Troy was managed in 1888 by Ted Sullivan, who frowned on Troy's consumption of alcoholic beverages. Troy agreed voluntarily to abstain from drinking as a condition for playing on the manager's team, but was unhappy with the restriction. Finally, in a home game during the 1888 season, Troy promised that, if Sullivan went to the bar under the grandstand and brought him a beer, Troy would "clear the bases." Sullivan complied, and Troy walked to the plate saying, "The 'Old Dash' is back." Troy hit the ball off the center field fence for an inside-the-park home run to win the game. Sullivan later recalled, "After that I never stopped my old friend, John Troy, from taking his glass of beer." Sullivan further recalled that no player impressed him more than Troy for the "natural way he picked up ground balls", as "a man of principle", and for his "originality, good humor and clean language in the style of coaching."

Later years

As a New York native who played for the Gothams/Giants in their first season in New York, Troy was fondly remembered by New Yorkers. From approximately 1889 to 1900, and with the exception of the 1894 season when he lost his license after an attack on a grandstand gatekeeper, Troy operated the beer concession, sometimes referenced as a saloon or bar, at the

in New York. According to one account published in 1893, patrons sometimes "paid more attention to 'Dasher' Troy's emporium than they did to the game." In September 1900, he opened a café in his old home neighborhood at Tenth Avenue and Thirty-Ninth Street. Troy was married to Mary E. Flanagan in approximately 1890. By 1900, Troy was living with Mary in Manhattan and was employed as a liquor dealer. At that time, they had four children living with them: William (born July 1884), Margaret (born September 1888), Annie (born October 1889), and John Jr. (born November 1891). Ten years later, Troy was still living in

, was employed as a bartender and shared the household with wife Mary, daughters, Margaret and Anne, and son, John J. Troy, Jr.Census entry for John J. Troy, age 53, born in New York. Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Manhattan Ward 12, New York, New York; Roll: T624_1025; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0666; FHL microfilm: 1375038. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census atabase on-line In 1920, Troy was still living in Manhattan with his wife, Mary, and son, John, Jr., in Manhattan. By 1930, Troy and his wife had retired and moved to Queens, New York.Census entry for John J. Troy, age 73, born in New York. Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Queens, Queens, New York; Roll: 1599; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 1184; Image: 457.0; FHL microfilm: 2341334. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census atabase on-line Troy died in 1938 after a long illness at age 81 at his home in the South Ozone Park neighborhood of

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York. He was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in

Woodside, Queens Woodside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered on the south by Maspeth, Queens, Maspeth, on the north by Astoria, Queens, Astoria, on the west by Sunnyside, ...

, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troy, Dasher 1856 births 1938 deaths 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Major League Baseball second basemen Detroit Wolverines players Providence Grays players New York Gothams players New York Metropolitans players Alaskas players Washington Nationals (minor league) players Albany (minor league baseball) players Brooklyn Atlantics (minor league) players New York New Yorks players Binghamton Crickets (1880s) players Scranton Indians players Manchester Farmers players New Haven Blues players Troy Trojans (minor league) players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Baseball players from Queens, New York People from Ozone Park, Queens Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Queens)